.... ,.. I __} and the Essential Questions ofLife 114 , ~~~~~c- ~- ~:#.. -­ ~:::: ___ ­ W _ JOHNSON --cO' _ _ _- • .---- uxus and the Essential Questions ofLife

Edited by Jacquelynn Baas

With Contributions by Jacquelynn Baas Ken Friedman Jacob Proctor

Hood Museum ofArt, D artmouth College • H anover, N ew Hampshire in Association with The University of Chicago Press • C hicago and London J ~cq u e l y nn B~~ s is director emeritus of The c~ t ~ l og u e ~ nd ex hibition titled Fluxus Printed in the United S t ~ t es of America the Unive rsity ofC~ liforni~ Berkeley aud th e Esseutinl Q uestious of Life were Art Museum ~nd P~cific Film Archive. o r g ~nized by th e Hood Muse um of Art 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 1 2 3 4 5 Prev iously she se rve d ~ s director of th e ~ nd ge nerously supported by C onst~n ce Hood Museum ofArt. She is the ~u th or, ~nd Wa lter Burke, C l~ ss of 1944, the ISBN-13: 978-0-226-03359-4 (paper) co~ uth or, or editor of m ~ny publi c~ tion s, R~ y Winfield Smith 19 18 Fund, ~nd the ISBN-10: 0-226-03359-7 (paper) in cl uding S 111ile of th e Buddha : East em Marie-Louise and s~ mu e l R.. R.o se nrh ~ l Philosophy aud Hles tem A rt.fimll J\1Io 11 et Fund. Libr~ry of Congress Cataloging-in­ to Today (C~ li forn i~ . 2005), Buddlw Publication Data Mi11d iu Coute111pomry Art (C~ liforn i ~. Exhibition schedule 2004), Leamiug i\1/iud: Expericuce iuto Flu x us ~nd the esse nri ~ l questions of Hood Muse um of Art, A rt (C~ liforni ~. 2010) , Meas ure o(Ti111e life I edited by J ~c qu e l y nn Baas; with D~rtmouth College (C~ l ifo rni ~ . 2007), Darrell Waterstou: contributions by Jacquelyn n Ba~ s . Apri l 16-August 7, 20 11 Rcprcscutiug th e liwisible (C h ~rt~. 2007), (et ~ I.] . ~ nd T he ludcpeudcut C roup : Postll'ar Britaiu Grey Art Ga llery, p. Cnl. nud th e Aesth etics of Pleuty (MIT, 19 90). New York Universit y Includes bibliographica l references. September 9-December 3, 2011 Exhibition schedul e: Hood Museum of Published by Art, Dartmouth College: April 16-August University of Michiga n 7, 201 1; Grey Art G~ ll e r y , New Yo rk Hood Museum of Art, Museum of Art University: September 9-December 3, D~rtmouth Coll ege February 25-May 20, 2012 20 1"1 ; Universit y ofM i c hi g~ n Museum of 1-l ~ n over, New 1-l ~ mp s hire 03755 Art: Febru ary 25-May 20, 2012. ww\v. hood n1u se u n1.da rtmou th .edu ISBN-13: 978-0-226-03359-4 (pbk. : alk . Ed ited by Nils Nadeau and paper) Designed by Glenn Suokko ISBN-10: 0-226-03359-7 (pbk. : alk. The Unive rsit y ofC hi c~go Press, Printed by Capit~ l O ffset Co mp~n y p~p e r ) l. Flu xus (Group of ~rtis t s)­ C hi c~go 60637 T he following images are photographed .Ex hibitions. 2. Art, Modern-20th The Unive rsity ofChi c~go Press, Ltd. , by Jeffrey Nintzel: cover, fro ntispiece, century-Exhibitions. I. Baa s, Jacquelynn , London ca talogue numbers 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 1948- II. Hood Muse um of Art. 13, 15, 17, 22, 26, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, N6494. F55F57 2011 © 20.11 by T he Trustees of 37, 42 , 46, 52, 55 , 56, 59, 63,64, 65, 70, 709.04'60747423-dc22 Dartmouth Coll ege 72, 73, 74, 78, 79, 80, 85, 90, 93, 96, 102, All rights reserved. Published 2011. 106, 107, 11 0, Ill , 11 2, 1"13, 116 2010051 925

Every effort h ~s been m~d e to identify Cover and b~ c k cover: Flux Year Box 2, This paper meets the requirements of ~ nd l oc~ t e th e ri ghtful copyri ght holder 1966, fi ve-compartment wooden box ANSI/ NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of of a llm~t e ri ~ l not s p ec ifi c~ ll y containing work by various artists . Hood Paper). commissio ned for use in this p ubli c~ ti o n Museum of Art, Dartmouth Coll ege, and to secure pennission , w here Memori~ l Collection: applica ble, for rem e of ~ II such materi al: Purchased through the Wi lliam S. Rubin Any error, 01ni ss ion, or £1 ilure to obtain Fund; GM.987.44.2 (ca t. 6) authori za tion with res pect to 1nateri al copyrighted by other sources has been Frontispiece: George M~ c iuna s, Btuglnry either un~void~bl e or unint e nti o n~l. Fl uxkit , 1971 , seven-compartment The editors ~nd publishers welcome ~ n y pl ast ic box containing seven keys. info rm ~ tion th~t would ~ ll ow them to Hood Muse um of Art, D~rt m ou th correct future reprints. College, George Maciunas Memori al Coll ec tion: Gift of the Friedman Family; GM.986.80 .1 64 (c~t. 22) © Courtesy of Billie Maciun ~s Contents

Lenders to the Exhibition vii

Preface ix Juliette Bianco

Acknowled gments x iii Jacquelynn Baas

I. Introducti on 1 Jacquelynn Baas

2. Food: The R aw and the Fluxed 13 H annah Higgins

3. George M aciunas's Politics o f Aesthetics 23 J acob Proctor

4. Flu xus: A Laboratory of Ideas 35 Ken Friedman

CATALOGUE OF THE EXHIBIT ION 45

5. Flux us and the Essential Questi o ns of Life 4 7 Jacquelynn Baas Art (What's It Good Fo r)? 47 C hange? 49 D anger? 52 D eath? 55 Freedom ? 56 God? 59 H appiness? 60 H ealth? 64 Love? 66 N o thingness? 70 Sex? 71 Staying Alive? 74 Time? 76 What A m I? 79

Illustrated List ofW orks 85

Selected Bibliography 131 • • • • • f • • • • • f • • f 4 Fluxus: A Laboratory of Ideas

Ken Friedman

In 1979, H arry Rube labeled Fluxus " the most into contac t w ith one another. The peripatetic radical and experimental art movement of the George Maciunas managed to meet many of sixties ." 1 In those days, few believed him. Three those w ho would cohere into Fluxus in the ea rl y decades later, more people might feei this to be 1960s. H e had been trying to create an avant­ o, but few could say why. We might answer that ga rd e art gallery named AG that was already question ftrst by noting that experimentati on is nearl y bankrupt on the day it opened. N ext, ultimately marked by qualities that emerge in a he wanted to publish a magazine-really an laboratory, sc ientific or otherwise. In this essay I encyclopedia of sorts-documenting the most will exa mine Fluxus as an international labora­ adva nced art, m usic, literature, film, and design tory of ideas- a meeting ground and workplace work being done anywhere in the world. George for artists, composers, designers, and architects, as had an ambitious plan for va rious interlocking well as economists, mathemati cians, ballet danc­ editorial boards and publishing committees, but ers, chefs, and even a wou ld-be theologian. W e it never ca me to fruition. (H e was better at plan­ ca me from three continents-Asia, Europe, and ning than he was at fundraising or lea dership.) N orth America. At first, many critics and artists By 1962, George was in Germany, developing a labeled us charl atans; the general public ignored series of festivals for the· public presentation of us. Later they ca ll ed us artists; ftn ally they saw us work that he pl anned to publish in the magazine as pioneers of one kind or another. The concep­ he still had on the back burner. The magazine tual challenge of this essay by a Flux us insider, was to have been called Flu x us, so the festiva l was then, lies in trying to identify just what kind of ca ll ed Flu x us. piOn. eers we were..­ Nine artists and composers ca me together Emerging from a community that bega n in in Wiesbaden to perform: , Ali­ the 1950s,3 Fluxus had gained its name and its son Knowles, Addi K0pcke, George Maciunas, identity by 1962. In different pl aces on different N am June Paik, Benj amin Patterson , Wolf continents, meetings, friendships, and relation­ Vo stell , Karl Erik Welin, and . ships brought va rious constell ations of people The German press liked the name of the fe ti­ val and bega n referring to the Wiesbaden nine Opposite: as die Flu x us leute-"the Flux us people"- and Ken Friedman, A Fl11x Corsage, 1966-76, clea r plastic box wi th the name stuck.4 Other artists became associated paper label on lid containing seeds. Hood Museum of Art, Dan­ mouth College, George Ma ciunas Memori al Coll ection: Gift of with Flux us through contac t w ith members of the Friedman Fami ly; GM.986.80.40 9 (ca t. 17). this burgeoning international ava nt-garde com­ books. The resulting chart offers an overview of munity, including such varied prac titioners as the "who was who (and where)" ofFluxus over a , H enning Christiansen, Robert thirty-year period.10 Filliou, , Willem de Ridder, The study suggested a consensus of opin­ and . Others joined later, including ion about the allegiance of those whose names Jeff Berner, Geoffrey H endricks, Milan Kniza k, appea red in more than half of th e compilations and me.5 as a key participant in Fluxus. There were thirty­ It is important to note that Flux us was a three artists on this list: Eric Andersen, Ay-0 , co mmunity rather than a collective with a com­ Joseph Beuys, , ,Jea n mon artistic and political program.6 (None of Dupuy, , Albert Fine, Ken Fried­ the artists signed the suppo ed Flux us manifes­ man, Al H ansen, Geoffrey H endricks, Dick Hig­ toes that George M aciunas created- not even gins, Joe Jones, Milan Kniza k, , George himsel f. ) Several streams ofthought meet Addi K0pcke, Takehisa Kosugi, , in th e work and prac tices of the Fluxus com­ George M aciunas, Larry Miller, , munity. One stream is the well-known Fluxus N am June Paik, Benjamin Patterson, Takaka relationship to the teaching of , and Saito, , , Daniel to related lines of practice reaching back to Z en Spoerri, Ben Vautier, , Yoshimasa Buddhism.7 Another stream is the more oblique Wada, Robert Watts, Emmett Williams, and La but still strong relationship to ea rli er- twentieth­ Monte Young. These thirty-three individuals are century ava nt-garde manifestations ranging from included in the majority of projects and exhibi­ LEF and constructivism to Dada (though Fluxus tions, but a broad vision of the Flu x us commu­ people were not linked to the anarchistic and nity would include m any more, among others des tructive ethos ofDada). Don Boyd, Giuseppe Chiari, Esther Ferrer, Juan Perhaps the best short definition of Fluxus Hidalgo, D av i det Hampson, Alice Hutchin , is an elegant little manifesto that Dick Higgins Bengt af Klintberg, Carla Liss, Jackson M ac published in 1966 as a rubber stamp: Low, Walter Marchetti, Richard M axfield, Jonas M ekas, Carolee Schneem ann, Greg Sharits, and Flux us is not: Paul Sharits. -a moment in history or In 1982, Dick Higgins wrote an essay in -an art movement. which he attempted to id e11 tify nine criteria th at di stinguished, or indica ted the qualities of, Flux us is: Fluxus: internationalism, experimentalism and -a way of doing things, iconoclasm, , minimalism or con­ - a tradition, and centration, an attempted resolution of the art/ -a way oflife and death.B life dichotomy, implicativeness, play or gags, ephemerality, and specifi city. Later on I worked These words summarize the time-bound, with Dick's list, expanding it to twelve criteria: transformational, and interactive development globalism, the unity of art and life, intermedi a, of Flu x us. In the late 1970s, I suggested using experimentalism, chance, playfulness, simplic­ content analysis of Flux us projects to give an ity, implica tiveness, exemplativism, specificity, overview of Fluxus, and in 1981, Peter Frank presence in time, and musicality. 11 While Flu xus and I used this method to chart the participants had neither an explicit re ea rch program nor a for a history of Fluxus9 In 1991, James Lewes common conceptual program, a range of rea­ brought our chart forward in time by surveying sonable iss ues could be labeled id eas, points of twenty-one Flux us exhibitions, catalogues, and commonality, or conceptual criteriaY If they do

36 Fluxus .1nd the E~semi.1l Qut'\tJom nfLJtt• not constitute the framework ofan experimental multiples, publica tions, and personal correspon­ research program, they do make a useful frame­ dence that enabled continual communica tion work for a laboratory ofideas. among coll eagues who might not meet in per on In some respects, the Flu xus community for years at a time. There were only one or two functioned as an invisible coll ege, not unlike the large-scale events that ga thered the entire com­ community that would give rise to early mod­ munity in one place.17 N evertheless, subsets and ern science. 13 The first invisible colleges involved constellations among Flux us participants have "groups of elite, mutually interacting, and pro­ been meeting in a rich cycle of concerts and ductive sc ientists from geographically distant festivals that began in 1962 and have continued affiliates who exchange[d] information to moni­ sporadica lly for much of the half century since tor progress in their fi eld [s ] ." 14 In a different way, then. All of this created a community that fits Fluxus fulfilled many of the sa me functions, and the description of an invisible coll ege in many several Fluxus people identified their work-and respects. Flux us-as a form of research. 15 The idea of Flux us as a laboratory, on the D espite the parall els, though, there are also other hand, goes back to America n pragmatism major differences, particularly in the respective and its predecessors, Unitarianism and America n 1 attitudes of the two groups toward experiment, transcendentalism , as well as to the Shakers. R an d in the debate surrounding what each group The Unitarians descended from the Congrega­ lea rned from or developed through experi­ tional churches of N ew England. These were mental work. The natural philosophers whose Puritan Calvinist churche , but Puritanism took efforts gave rise to modern science developed a radical turn in the theology of William Ell ery an agreed-upon language and method of for­ Channing. In the ea rly 1800s, Channing turned mal experiment, while the artists and composers away from the doctrine of si n and punishment, in Fluxus experi men ted informally and hardly as well as the doctrine of the Trinity, to establish agreed on anything. Formal experiment often w hat became Unitarian C hristianity. 19 Chan­ seeks to answer cl ea rl y identified ques tions; artis­ ning influenced Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry ti c experiment usually seeks informal, playful D avid Thoreau, and the other transcendentalists, results that are cast as emergent discoveries only several of whom sought ways to build a world in retrospect. Finally, beginning with the earli­ of action in daily life through communities that est journals-the Journal des Scavans (1665-1792) embraced new concepts ofwork.20 Among Euro­ and Philosophical Transactions (1665-present)­ pea n thinkers of interest to the transcendental­ natural philosophers and scientists used articles, ists were Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whose term monographs, and other media, along with public " intermedia" would reappea r in Fluxus (though debates and programs of experiments, as plat­ with a different meaning), and Friedrich Schlei­ forms for exchanging ideas and debating results, ermacher, whose work on Biblical criticism and producing in the process a robust, progressive hermeneutics (the art ofinterpretation) paved the dialogue. Flux us never developed such robust way for a new concept ofinterpretation theory. mechani m s. 16 Emerson foreshadowed both Cage and What does make the comparison with the Fluxus by introducing the concept of the ordi­ invisible college appropriate is that hardly anyone nary into American philosophy and art. H e was in Fluxus was part of a formal institution. What one of the first Americans to write about Asian we shared were common interests and reason­ reli gion and philosophy as well-another link to ably regular meetings, both personal and virtual. Cage and to Fluxus artists, many ofwhom shared M embers of the Flux us community created a an interest in Asian philosophy, especially Z en rich informal information sys tem of newsletters, Buddhism . In contrast to the European concept

Fluxus: A Laboratory of Ideas 37 of the sublime, which was a distinctl y different pursued in the Fluxhouses and several other ven­ view ofculture, Emerson emphasized the present tures. M aciunas was never able to rea li ze this moment and the commonplace. In his essay titled fully, but his ideas did give ri se to a number of "Experience," Emerson writes, ' I ask not for the workable projects.U' great, the remote, the romantic ... I embrace George's las t attempt at building a utopian the common, I explore and sit at the feet of the community took place in N ew M arlborough, familiar, the low. Give me insight into today, and Massachusetts, w here he moved in order to be you may have the antique and future worlds." close to Jean Brown's Fluxus collection and His embrace of the quotidian even turns rhetori­ archive in an old Shaker seed house in Tyring­ cal: "What would we rea ll y know the mea ning ham , M assachusettsY This part of the United of? The mea l in the firkin; the milk in the pan; States had a tradition of utopian communities, the ballad in the street; the news of the boat; the from the revolutionary period, to the Ameri­ glance ofthe eye; the form and ga it ofthe body." 21 ca n renaissance sparked by Emerson, Thoreau, Like Emerso n and his close friend H enry David and the transcendentalists, to Shaker se ttlements. Thoreau, Flu xus artist Dick Higgins would also Things had not changed all that much w hen Jea n celebrate the near, the dow n-to-earth, the fa mil­ se t up shop a little ways down the road from a 2 iar, in his "Something Else M anifesto" and "A half a dozen communes . H C hild 's History of Flux us." 22 The Shakers were among the first producti ve Transcendentalism's emphasis on experience utopians of the modern era. They were a reli­ as the basis for philosophy evolved into pragma­ gious community to be sure, but their religion tism toward the end of the 1800s in N ew Eng­ was one of service. They established some of the land. John D ewey, George H erbert M ead, and first m ass production industries in the world, C harles Sanders Peirce were born in N ew Eng­ selling obj ects and arti fac ts through ca talogues. land, and William James spent much of his life Their furniture, superb in design and perfect in there. R ela ted to the Puritan Calvinist tradi­ balance, was the first example ofindustrial design tion through Congregationalism and transcen­ and ergonomic sensibility in the furniture trade. dentalism, 23 these men ultimately developed a And they supplied America's farms and gardens concrete philoso phy for the New W orld . M ead 's with top quality seed. contribution to social thought through sym­ A seed house was a building where seeds bolic interac tionism provid es a rich framework were sorted and packaged. 'The packages could for understanding Flu xus. The idea behind w hat be ordered individually by ca talogue or m ail George M aciunas labeled " functionalist" art was order, in much the sa me way M aciunas would not functionali sm as we understand it today but a market Flux-products. There were also seed kits complex paradigm ofsy mbolic functions. 24 with an asso rtment ofpackages in tidy boxes that The transcendentalist concern for the signifi­ were not too different in shape or size from the ca nce ofeveryday life manifested itself in the form suitcase-sized Fluxkits of the 1960s. Like the of utopian communities such as Brook Farm, but Flu xkits, only a few remain. In an interesting this was not the first such effort, nor would it be coincidence, the most complete extant seed kit the las t. The so-called "Eightfold Path" of Bud­ is to be found at Enfield Shaker Village, 29 close dhism-right view, right intention, ri ght speech, to H anover, N ew Hampshire, where the Hood right discipline, right livelihood, right effort, Museum of Art at Dartmouth College houses a right mindfulness, right concentration-embod­ Flu xus coll ection established in honor of George ies similar concepts of common work. 25 George M aciunas. M aciunas's grea t, unrea li zed vision of Fluxus Like George, the Shakers were abstemious was to establish such a community, an idea he and celibate, and there were other delightful

38 Fluxus ,md lilt I ~'l'llll d t~dc t1un ut il'c' similarities as well. The Shaker umon of work already under construction when Maciunas came and life included art and music as more than mere along and named it Fluxus. pastimes. A sense of industry and a light spirit For another thing, despite the broad range were central characteristics of the Shaker com­ ofinterests and w ide geographical spread, Fluxus munity, qualities that also typified the Fluxus was not that large a community-in the 1960s, it community at its be t. The Shakers organized involved fewer than a hundred people in a world their communal life around two functi ons, work population ofabout three billion, part ofa sli ghtly and worship, and the productive Shaker econ­ larger community ofseveral hundred people w ho omy was a distinctive attribute of their villages. 311 were ac tive in a relatively small sector of the art R eading the rules ofthe order, it is nea rl y impos­ world that we might label the ava nt-garde. Those sible to separate work from other aspects ofShaker w ho knew each other brought other interesting life, with risi ng and returning to bed, meals, and people into the group, w here they became inter­ even household management structured around ested in the same kinds of iss ues and undertook the tempo and meaning of the working life. 31 the sa me kind of work. When I fmt met Dick Higgins in 1966, I History is always contingent, and there caught from his ideas a vision of work as part are countless scenarios in w hich certain people of exactl y that kind of community life. Dick's might never have met, or might have met with­ "Something Else M anifesto" call ed for arti sts out forming a community, or formed a very to "chase down an art that clucks and fills our different kind of community. As it happened, guts." 32 This was a call to collaboration and a ca ll however, the social and historica l development of to productive work, to art as a kind of produc­ Fluxus generated intense correspondence among tion that engages the concept of community. artists even at a distance, countless common Dick would introduce me to George M aciunas, projects, and many different kinds of collabora­ w hose philosophy of Fluxus articulated many of tion. Flux us artists met together sporadica lly but the same principles. George's vision of Fluxus relatively often, and so me have worked together called for artists w ho were w illing to create work closely for five decades now. together, sharing ideas and principles, support­ The concept of experiment m akes claims on ing one another. While George's vision ofFlux us both thought and action. In a community such as was intensely politica l at one point in his life, by Fluxus, these claims lead in different and occa­ the time I met him he had shifted from a strictl y sionally contradictory directions. Such a diverse hierarchical concept of the coll ective to a vision community of experimental artists, composers, that was much more open. and designers, who lacked a coherent resea rch H ow did Flux us so readil y become this col­ program while working with a multiplicity of laborative working community or laboratory of approac hes, runs the risk of being seen as an art­ ideas and practices? For one thing, most of the ist group or even a movement w ith some kind Fluxus artists were already collaborating in one of continuing connection. This is especially the way or another; Fluxus simply became a new case because so me of the participants managed to point of intersection for usY Some of the art­ ea rn a living making art and most were happy, ists already knew one another, and others had or at least willing, to exhibit their products in art worked together for many years, such as those museums and sell it in art galleries . While Flux us in the N ew York Audio-Visual Group and John was aggressively interdisciplinary, involving art, Cage's former students. They did not come to architecture, design, and music (among other Fluxus, Flux us came to them w hen George things), it was never the kind of late modernist M aciunas crea ted the name for a magazine that art movement to which it has often been reduced. would publish their work. This was a building The Dartmouth College motto is apposite

Fluxus: A Laboratory of Ideas 39 here: Vox Claman.tis in Deserto, taken from the Notes first words of Isaiah 40:3: "A voice cries, 'In the 1 Harry Rube, Flu x us: The wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make a Mos t R adical and Experim wtal straight highway for our God across the waste­ A rt Move nrent ofthe Six ties lands."' In this passage, the mountains are to be (Amsterdam: A. , 1979). made flat, the rough ground level, and the rug­ 2 In the space ava il able here, it wi ll ged places a fertile plain. For George Maciunas, be impossible to provide a full the way forward involved leveling and bringing account of Fluxus as a laboratory of ideas and an experimental an end to the art world. He felt that art was a network. This is instead an "essay" distraction that prevented people from building a in the classica l sen es of the word, better world, while reinforcing the concepts and as defin ed by the Oxford English privileges of the upper class. George's vision of a Dictio11ary: "Acti on or process productive world entailed erasing art, but it was of trying or testing," and "A a vision that tended to confuse art and the eco­ composition of moderate length on . .. [a subj ect] more or less nomic and social forces that surrounded it. Many elaborate in style, though limited Fluxus artists disagreed with his view, and even in range George was inconsistent-his taste in music, for 3 Several excell ent accounts example, embraced both Monteverdi and Spike examine the yea rs before Jones. Fluxus emerged, including AI Hansen, Happwir·rgs : A Prim er Of course, many love the mountains and of Time-Space Art (N ew York: the rough ground as much as the highways and , 1965); the plains. The dialectical demands of Fluxus Dick Higgins, j ifferson's Birthday / also included George Brecht's proposal to think Post Fa ce (N ew York: Something something else, Milan Knizak's call to live dif­ Else Press, 1964); Higgins, " In ferently, Robert Filliou's vision of an art whose einem Minnensuchboot um die W elt," in 1962 Wiesbaden purpose is to make life more interesting than art, FLUX US 1982 (Wiesbaden and and Dick Higgins's metaphor ofan art that clucks Berlin: H arl ekin Art and Berliner and fills our guts. Such an approach to art and Kunstlerprogramm des DAAD, life-to art within life-entails an experimental 1982), 126-35 (in parallel German approach that connects in significant if some­ and Eng Li sh); Jerry Hopkins, Yoko Ono (New York: Mac millan), times amorphous ways with being-in-the-world, esp. 20-30; Jackson Mac Low, and that generates multiple activities of different "Wie George Maciunas die New kinds.34 Yorker Avantgarde kennelernte," The differences within Fluxus have made it in 1962 Wiesbaden FLUXUS 1982, difficult to frame us all as "Flux us people." Art 11- 125 (in parallel German and English); O wen Smith, "Proco­ has been a default frame, one that is only occa­ Fiu xus in the United States: The sionally appropriate. Compressing the larger lab­ Establishment ofa Like-Minded oratory into that frame means that a great deal Community ofArtists," in about Fluxus has been missed. What Fluxus was Fhrx us: A Concept1wl Country, ed. and perhaps remains is the most productive lab­ Estera Milman, a special iss ue oratory of ideas in the history of art, an invis­ of Visible Language, vol. 26, nos. 1-2 (Providence: Rhode Island ible college whose field ofstudy encompasses the School ofDes ign, 1992), 45-57; essential questions oflife. and Owen Smith, Flu x us: The History of a11 A ttitude (San Diego: a common id eology. (There are 10 Ken Friedman w ith James Lewes, San Diego State Unive rsity Press, many exampl es in the Archi v " Flux us: Global Com.munit y, 1998), 13-68. Sohm in Staa tsga leri e Stuttga rt Human Dimensions," in Fht xus : 4 For a comprehensive history and the j ea n Brown Archive at A Concept11al Co t.tt·ttry, 154- 79. ofFluxus, see Smith, Flu x us: the Getty R esearch Institute.) A The completed chart offers a The History of a11 Attitude. For recent conference titled Alternative broad consensus of opinion by disc uss ions of ea rly Flu xus, see Practices i11 Desig 11 : The Co llecti ve: thirty experts who have given also O wen Smith, " Developing Past, Present, a11d Future at RMIT lengthy consid eration to Flu xus, a Fluxable Forum: Earl y University in Melb ourne explored including sc holars, critics, Performance and Publishing," the multiple dimensions of the curators, ga ll eri sts, art dea lers, in The Flu xus Reader, ed. Ken id ea of the collecti ve. In the 1960s, Flu xus artists, and other artists Friedman (London: Academy the word was closely lin ked to the interes ted in Flu xus. A!together, Press, John Wiley and Sons, Soviet noti on of collecti ve farms the chart includes 351 artists 1998), 3-21, and Hann ah and forced industrial coll ecti ves, presented in twenty-one different Higgins, " Flux us Fortuna," in Th e which probabl y influenced projects representing a wide Flux us R eader, 31- 59. The Fht x us George Maciunas's view at some va ri ety of ve nues, prese ntati on , R eader also contains an extensive point; certainly governance by and publica tions during the chronology. an unelected commissa r was one thirty years of Flu xus up to 5 The loose but purposeful reason that most Flu xus artists 1992. evolution ofRobert Filliou into shied away from the id ea. After 11 Dick Higgins, "Fiu xus: Theory Flu xus is relative ly typica l; see the Melbourne conference, and R eception," L1.111d Art Press, Patrick Martin, " Unfinished however, my own view on aU of Fluxus R esea rch iss ue, vo l. 2, no. Filliou: On the Flu xus Ethos this changed, and l have come to 2 (1991): 33. Dick's first ve rsion and the Origins of R elati onal feel that more recent models of of the nine criteri a appea red Aesthetics," A rt j ourn al 69, nos. collecti ve community and ac tion in a priva tely published 1982 1-2 (Spring-Summer 2010): might usefully describe the Fluxus paper titled "Flu xus T heory and 44-62. Bengt afKlintberg is ph enomenon. R eception," which was reprinted another good story; see Ken 7 See Ellsworth Snyder, "John Cage in 1998 in Tlte Fluxt.ts R eader, Friedman, "The Case for Bengt Disc us es Flu xus," in Fht xus: A 217-36. Dick expanded his li st to afKlintberg," Perfo nnan ce Resea rch Co nceptual Co u11try, 59-68. For eleven in Higgins, Modentism si11 ce 11 , no. 2 (2006): 137-44, and an enlightening exa minati on Postm odemism, 174-75. For my Bengt afK!intberg, Svensk Fht x us of Flu xus and Z en, ee D av id amended li t, see Ken Friedman, (Swedish Fhtxus) (Stockholm: T. D ori s, "Z en Vaudeville: A Flu xps aud Co mpauy (N ew York: Rannells Antikvariat, 2006) . Dick M edi (t)a ti on in th e Margins of Emily Harvey Gall ery, 1989), 4, Higgins described the Flu xus Fluxus," in The Fht xus R eader, reprinted in Achille Bonito Oliva, expansion process as a se ri es of 237-53. Gino DiMaggio, and Gianni waves; see Higgins, Modernism 8 Higgins, Modemism since Sassi, eds., Ubi Fluxus, ibi motus since Postmodemisrn: Essays on Postrn odemistn , 160. 1990-1962 (Veni ce and Milan: La fl·ttermedia (San Diego: San Diego 9 Ken Friedman and Peter Frank, Biennale di Venezi a and Mazzotta State University Press, 1997), 163. " Fiu xus," in A rt Vivant: Special Editore, 1990), 328-32. A later 6 For an explicit disc ussion of this Repo rt-Fhtxus 11 (Tokyo: N ew version of Flu x us and Company issue by Fluxus co-founder Dick Art Seibu Company, Ltd., 1983), appea red in The Fhtx t.ts R eader as Higgins, see Higgins, Modemism and Ken Friedman w ith Peter well, 237-53. sit"JCe Postm odemism, 161-63 and Frank, "Flu xus: A Post-Definitive 12 Dick and I disc ussed these id eas 173-82. Correspondence between History: Art Where R es ponse Is extensively over the yea rs, and at the artists and George M aciunas, the H eart of the Matter," High different times Dick labeled them as well as correspondence among Perfo rm ance 27 (1984): 56- 61, 83. criteri a or points. In Modern ism the artists themselves, contains sirtce Pos t111 odemism, he used th e explicit refus als to sign any term " points" but added, " rea lly, proposed manifesto as well as they are alnwst criteria" (175). opposition to the very noti on of

Fluxus: A Laboratory of Ideas 41 13 For more o n th e concept of the w ith writings by Flu xus peopl e and Congregational rh eology or invisible college, see Diana C rane, and continues with o ngoing live Puritan Calvinism. N evertheless, luvisible Co lleges : D iffusiou

42 Fluxus .nd rhe E''C'lltl.d (~Ul'\lllllh of I 1k 20 For more on transcendentali sm, her perspective based on Dewey's the Getty Center for the Arts see J oel Mye rson, Tir e Tmrr sce/1­ pragm atism. Titled "Aesthetic and Humanities in Los Angeles, deura/isrs: A R evier// ofR esearch 1111d Anthropology: Theory and alifornia. Its UR.L is http:// Criticis 111 (New Yo rk : Modern Analysis of Pop and Concepwal www.getty.edu / research/. The Language Association of America, Art in America," she completed online catalogue and findings aids 1984), and Mye rson, ed., Trarr scerr­ it in 1974 for the Department of describe the collection. dcutalislll: A Reader (N ew York : Anthropology of the University of 28 I spent the summer of 1972 in Oxford Unive rsity Press, 2000). California at Los Angeles. Tyringham working with Jea n 21 R alph Waldo Emerson, Essays aud 25 One of the genuine puzzles l Brown and helped arrange the firSt Lectures (New York: The Library contend with in consi dering meeting between Jea n and George of Ameri ca , 1983 [1 837J), 68-69. Fluxus and other art (or "anarr") M aciunas. I knew th ey would hit Thanks to Dine Fri edman for communities that acknowledge it off but never imagined how directing me to these passages. Buddhism a a o urce has been rich their relationship would 22 The "Something Else Man ifesto" the general lack of interest in become. It delighted me th at was published in 1964 in Mauifes­ ethics. lt is difficult to conceive of Jea n's archi ve was located in an toes (N ew York: Something Else Buddhism, either Zen or the other old Shaker seed hou e in the Press), 21 (digital reprint avai l­ schools, without th e foundational Berkshires of Massachuse tts. Every abl e from UbuWeb at http:// ethics of the Eightfold Path . evening when we ate dinner www.ubu.com / h istorica 1/ gb/ 26 For an exceLl ent di sc ussion of together, J ea n would quote the index.html). "A Child's History George Maciunas's experiment old Shaker proverb, " Hands to ofFiuxus" was published in 1979 in urban development and th e work and hea rts to God." It is in C harlton Burch's Liglrrworks Fluxhouses, see C harl es R . fitting th at Ameri ca's first great magazine and reprinted in Dick Simpson, " The Achievement of Flu x us collection was es tablished Higgins, Horizous: Tir e Poetics aud Territorial Community," in SoHo: in a Shaker seed ho use, while Theory of tir e lrrtenuedia (Carbon­ Tire Artisr i11 rlr e Ciry (Chicago: George's la st Fluxus cooperative dale: Southern lllinois Universi ty The University of C hicago Press, housi ng project was based nea rby Press, 1984). 1981), 153-88. In 2008, Stendhal in the wooded hea rtland of 23 That is to ay, not alvinist Gallery in New York organized tra nscendentaIism. dogma but rather Jonathan an exhibition titled C eor:ge 29 Information on th e Enfield Shaker Edwards's mystica l "divine and Ma churas: Prifa brica ted Buildiug Muse um is available at http:// supernarurallight" imparted to Sysrern that examined Maciunas's www.shakermuse um.org/ index. the soul from God. architectllral ideas . The Simpson html. 24 See George Herbert Mead, Mi11d, chapter is available on the gallery's 30 See Edward Deming Andrews, Se[f, aud Society fro ru tire f(/1/dpoiur website, along with excell ent Tir e People Ca lled Shakers (Oxford : ofa Social Belr aviorisr, ed. and essays by Julia R obinson, Carolina Oxford University Press, 1953), intro. Charles Morris (Chicago: Carrasco, M ari Dumett, and 94- 135. University of Chicago Press, 1967 others. The ga ll ery URL is 31 Ibid., 253-89. [1 934]) , and Herbert Blumer, http://stendhalgall ery.com, and 32 Dick Higgins, "A Something Sy111bolic luteracriouis111: Perspecti11e the essays are ava il able at http:// Else Manifesto," in Man ifestoes, aud Met/rod (Berkeley: University stendhalgall ery.com / ?page_ 21. Digital reprint ava ilable from ofCalifornia Press, 1986), esp. id=852 (accessed Au gust 19, UbuWeb at http://www.ubu. 1-60 on methodology and 61-77 2010). com/ h isrorica 1/ gb/ index. html. on M ea d 's thought. 1discovered 27 A se nsitive portrait of George's 33 This includes even people like Mead 's work in 1965 and Blumer's la st community appears in a book me, w ho were not artists before in th e early 1970s and have by his widow: Billie Maciunas, we became in volved with the relied heavil y on both in the Tir e Eve of Flux us: A F/u x /1/ e/ll oir, artists and composers in Flu xus. decades ince. The fir t doctoral w ith a preface by Kri stine Stiles, For the story of how a would-be dissertation to examine Flu xus an introduction by Geoffrey minister became an artist-or, was by anthropologist Marilyn Hendricks, and an afterword by in M arc el Duchamp's terms, an Ekdahl Ravicz, who developed Larry Mi ller (Orlando, Florida: Arbiter Press, 2010). The J ea n Brown Archi ve is now part of

F!Jxus. A Laboratory of Ideas 43 "anartist"- see Ken Friednun, of founding papers, along w ith "Events and the Exquisite the Easr Village Other, the Berkeley Corpse," in Tl1 e Exq11isire Barb, and the Los Angeles Free Press, Corpse: Cha11ce and Collaborarion we vanish from history soon after in S11rrealis111's Parlor Ga111e, ed. because our focus was so vastly Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren, different. Did we exert a role Davis Schneiderman, and Tom in developing the concept ofan Denlinger (Lincoln: University alternate press' Yes. Did we have of N ebraska Press, 2009), 73-74, any real part in the way the press fn. 6, as well as Peter Frank, "Ken developed? Perhaps we did, at least Friedman : A Life in Fluxus," in a small way. Did we succeed in Artistic Berljellows: Hisrories, in directing serious attention to Theories and Co nversa tions in cultural issues beyond the standard Collaborative Art Practices, ed. Holly underground press fo ca l points of C rawford (Lanham: University rock music, drugs, sex, and new Press of America, 2008), 145-86. left politics? Not hardly. 34 Curatorial analysis in general has tended to dismiss Flux us's engagem ent with the larger world by portray ing its experiments and failures as ineffective. For example, in Thomas Kellein's 2007 book George Mach111as and th e Dream of Fhi XII S (London: Thames and Hudson), George is depicted as a brilliant but failed dreamer. It is certainly true that we often influenced social change without influencin g the formal qualities or conceptual fo cus of the trends and iss ues that we helped to create. Fluxus W es t, for example, was one of the six or seven founding publishers of the Underground Press Syndicate in 1967, but we never gained any traction on the way the papers were designed or what they dealt with. Even though we ca n be found in the first li sts

44 Fluxus ,\lld thl' Es'L'Iltl.ti Qul'\tioth ofltlt: